Third quarter 2009 will see the Malaysian Communications & Multimedia Commission (MCMC) call for tender bids in “a beauty contest” for the UHF 470-742 megahertz spectrum. The successful bidder, to be announced late this year or early 2010, will build a single digital terrestrial transmission/TV broadcast (DTTB) infrastructure. While digital is already a reality for DTH operator Astro, the country’s free-to-air (FTA) TV services RTM 1 and 2, TV3, NTV7, 8TV and Channel 9 will have to digitize before the analogue switch-off, scheduled for 2015. Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) has been conducting its digital terrestrial TV trials since early September 2006. The number of channels is set to rise from the current six, to as many as 66. With the award of the spectrum to one party – which could be a consortium of existing broadcast players – there will be a shift from the current system whereby TV broadcasters are individually licensed as content application service providers (CASP), installing their own equipment at transmission sites. In contrast, the network facilities provider (NFP), winner of the UHF spectrum, will provide the transmission infrastructure with the CASP riding on the DTTB to provide digital TV programmes. Government representative says this is to allow CASP to focus on content aggregation instead of investing in infrastructure. But broadcasters will have enough expense, with the entire migration from analogue to digital estimated to cost up to RM2 billion. In terms of current media consumption, Prashant Kumar, CEO of Universal McCann Malaysia, says that the time Malaysians are spending is on the increase. “Time spent on the Internet is going up quite rapidly. Traditional media have either remained flat or showed slight decline.” Kumar says that TV’s share of overall ad revenue has been increasing and closing the gap with newspapers, mainly driven by Media Prima channels, as they continue to command the lion’s share of local TV ad expenditure (adex). “However other media that are also growing fast are the Internet, point-of-sale and outdoor.” In terms of the recession’s impact on advertising thus far, “TV has seen a slight decline of one percent so far as per Nielsen Jan-Feb 2009, but reality could be harsher,” surmises Kumar. “But print is the real sufferer with nine percent decline. Overall the adex has gone down by five percent.” “I think overall the industry will shrink about five to seven percent this year in real terms. I am assuming steeper drops in the coming days in the Nielsen adex, but uncovered spends such as big chunk of Internet and outdoor should go up, as there is an aggressive macro trend in favor of that.” On the topic of Malaysia’s dominant pay TV player, Kumar says Astro’s biggest opportunity today is not the number of channels or even the penetration levels (now at 44 percent). “They own the Tamil content space already pretty much (but) now the battle for them lies in winning Malay viewership. TV9, the FTA Malay special offering has viewership that often is higher than Astro’s Malay channels combined. FTA channels are still among the largest viewed channels on Astro. Chinese programming has very little loyalty, as people watch programs rather than channels, so the fragmentation is immense and people on the same evening will move seamlessly between Wah Lai Toi, 8TV, TV2 & NTV7 (last three are FTA channels). It would seem that new Astro penetration is more about lifestyle statement than content consumption. I sense that Astro is acutely aware of that and is trying hard to crack the space. If I was Media Prima, I’d be concerned about that.” Continues Kumar, “TV9 has restaged itself as a channel for Malay youth and young Malay families, so that’s a channel to watch out for. Astro with its aggressive bouquet of six Malay channels and deep programming budgets is something to watch out for as well. Media Prima’s efforts to make money from its digital assets will be tested too. IPTV offerings from Astro, Media Prima and Telekom Malaysia could be expected to make some news too. “The Malay content market is still somewhat uncontested. World-class production values, with quality scripts and solid direction could make a lot of difference. Some new local animations have created waves, which is a good beginning in that area. As TV adex expands and audience tastes evolve, FTA channels are carrying more and more global programming too.” Kumar says the challenges facing the market includes its smaller size, which means shooting TVC’s is expensive for many small advertisers or even for medium and larger advertisers, if the campaigns are tactical. “So, a lot of money that would have come to TV is going to the press. A lot of growth that would have come to TV is also getting diverted towards Internet and outdoor unfortunately bypassing the trend that has happened in most markets.” He says the biggest news in TV this year so far have been TV9 and Astro’s Malay bouquet. “But in 2008, there were also some great initiatives in the area of branded content. Universal McCann brought to market eight branded content initiatives – including two original concept-to-screen music videos and three original concept-to-screen drama series worth more than 2,000 minutes. One of them – the Coca-Cola Freedom Song – is a finalist at Festival of Media in Valencia.” TVAplus